1999 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill PhD, Environmental Sciences and Engineering

Research Interests

Aging

Cancer

Environment (general)

Technology

Research Activities

Dr. Nakamura’s interests focus on investigating mechanisms of DNA damage response to endogenous and exogenous reactive agents. The reverse genetic approach provides a powerful method for the study of gene function and regulation. DT40 cells originated from a chicken B-lymphocyte line and their knockout mutants are observed to show a strong phenotypic resemblance to murine mutants. Using a series of isogenic DT40 knockout mutants with high-throughput format, we determined that cells deficient in the FANC/BRCA pathway and homologous recombination are hypersensitive to formaldehyde at concentrations found in human plasma. Until that time, formaldehyde had been determined to cause DNA-protein crosslinks but little was known about how such lesions are repaired. Our results suggest that the use of syngeneic mutant cell lines, which is a very modern technology, is capable of deciphering the physical causes of DNA damage that are missed by more classical technologies. Indeed, the use of syngeneic lines to the analytic ability of toxicology is worthy of interest to more than simply the DNA repair field. Dr. Nakamura is also interested in synthetic lethality caused by poly(ADPribose)polymerase inhibitors and their translational research.

Join us Tuesday, March 3, from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. in the BCBSNC Auditorium to learn more about implementation science.
"What is Implementation Science?" you ask? Why, it's “a scientific strategy to address current barriers to effective implementation of evidence-based programs,” of course. Dr. Dean Fixsen’s lecture is brought to you by the UNC Implementation Science Student Group, Consortium for Implementation Science and the PHocus Seminar Series. Refreshments at noon!View on Facebook